Virna Rodriquez, left, and Alicia Perez, then students at Bruce Randolph High School, rally in favor of the DREAM Act on the steps of Denver’s City and County Building in 2010.(John Prieto/ The Denver Post).

The presidents of five colleges in the state and Colorado State University’s system chancellor have signed a letter asking their representatives in Congress to get a move on with immigration reform. Fairness and the economy can’t wait any longer, they said.

“Immigration reform would help Colorado’s economy to thrive,” Colorado College president Jill Tiefenthaler said in a statement released by the Partnership for a New American Economy, a bipartisan coalition of more than 500 mayors and heads of top U.S. businesses who have joined with education leaders nationwide “to support sensible immigration reform that will strengthen America’s economy,” according to the partnership.

Tiefenthaler concluded, “We educate some of the brightest minds in the world right here in Colorado. As our students graduate and begin to accomplish great feats in their chosen fields, we would like to see them stay here and contribute to Colorado’s communities and economy.”

WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Coffman voted to defund the Obama administration’s executive order that allows so-called “dreamers” — kids who were brought here by their illegal immigrant parents — to receive temporary work permits to stay in the United States.

Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

The amendment passed the House 224 to 201.

The vote, which all the other Colorado House Republicans supported as well, is interesting because Coffman has tried in recent months to rebrand himself as more sympathetic to his Latino constituents.

Under his new re-districted boundaries, there are a lot more Latino voters — and Democrats. He is considered one of the most vulnerable sitting Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Democrats have already fielded a challenger for his re-election next year in former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, who speaks Spanish and appeals to the liberal base.

Coffman said in a statement he “strongly supports giving a path to citizenship for the children who grew up and graduated from school here as part of a comprehensive immigration reform package but within these I.C.E. memos there is simply too much prosecutorial discretion.”

Tens of thousands of young people nationally — including hundreds in Colorado — have applied for deferred action under the executive order. Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney told The Denver Post last year he would keep the existing program in place if he would have won his election.

Colorado’s Democrats, all of whom voted against it, sharply criticized the amendment, which doesn’t stand much of a chance in the U.S. Senate.

“The … amendment puts into question the ability of our government to help our most talented young people, who consider the United States home and contribute to our country,” said Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder. “While we still need to pass comprehensive immigration reform … Deferred Action for Childhood Arvials is a small but important program to help some of our best and brightest make this country a better place.”

Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Jefferson County, called it “unacceptable House Republicans continue playing partisan political games rather than advancing the best interest of the country and Colorado.”

The White House decried the amendment Thursday saying the House Republicans “chose to spend today passing an extreme amendment to strip protections from dreamers.”

“It asks law enforcement to treat these Dreamers the same way as they would violent criminals. It’s wrong. It’s not who we are. And it will not become law,” the White House said, in a statement.

The Obama campaign said GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has confused voters in statements to The Denver Post that he would honor temporary work permits given to illegal immigrant DREAMers granted by the Obama administration.

Romney said in an interview Monday before a Denver rally that he would not deport illegal immigrants who were granted temporary amnesty under an executive order issued by President Obama in June.

“The people who have received the special visa that the president has put in place, which is a two-year visa, should expect that the visa would continue to be valid. I’m not going to take something that they’ve purchased,” Romney said. “Before those visas have expired we will have the full immigration reform plan that I’ve proposed.”

Romney said he will work with Congress to pass permanent immigration reform. While he didn’t furnish a lot of details Monday about what that would look like, he has said in previous interviews kids who served in the military may be able to qualify for citizenship.

Obama’s director of Hispanic press Gabriela Domenzain said in a statement:

“Romney’s latest immigration pivot raises more questions than it answers. He still has not said whether he would continue the Administration’s policy that provides a temporary reprieve from deportation for young people who were brought here through no fault of their own. Would he side with his extreme anti-immigration advisors and repeal this measure? What would he do with those who qualify for deferred action but haven’t received it? Would he deport those who have received a deferment when the program expires after two years?”

With Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney reaching out to Hispanic voters in Los Angeles Monday at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, prominent Latinos and Latinas gathered in northwest Denver for a press event to criticize Romney’s policy proposals. The event was organized by the Obama campaign, and — coming a couple hours before Romney spoke in Los Angeles — was intended as a prebuttal to Romney’s remarks.

In his speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber, Romney tried to persuade Hispanics to side with Republicans, saying, “[O]urs is the party of opportunity, the party that will restore America’s prosperity.”

“I am convinced that the Republican Party is the rightful home of Hispanic Americans,” he added later.

That, however, is not how prominent Denver Chicana activist Nita Gonzales sees it.

“Romney and Ryan are the most extreme ticket on immigration in a long time,” she said at the Obama event. “… Mitt Romney is on the wrong side of every issue important to our community.”

President Barack Obama meets with 12 young elected officials at a roundtable discussion at the Auraria Events Center on Wednesday. The president was at the school to announce steps the administration is taking to help borrowers better manage their student loan debt.

Before President Barack Obama bounded onto the stage Wednesday morning in the Auraria Events Center to introduce a new student loan plan, he sat down with a dozen young Democratic politicians for about 15 minutes to listen to their concerns and urge them to support his.

“There wasn’t a person in that room who wasn’t inspired to run for office because of Obama,” said Colorado Sen. Michael Johnston, Denver.

“For us to spend time with him, it was reaffirming. There are hundreds and thousands of people at the local level who believe good people can make an impact because of him. I hope it was reaffirming for him too.”

U.S. Rep Mike Coffman sits outside before Chief Justice Robert Hyatt's courtroom before taking the stand in a redistricting trial. The Aurora Republican's district could greatly change.

GOP Congressman Mike Coffman said today he thinks Democrats are taking aim at him because they view him as a potential U.S. Senate candidate.

A Democratic map for new congressional boundaries takes Coffman out of a safe GOP seat in the south metro area and puts him into a competitive district that includes almost all of Aurora.

“I understand the mentality of the maps,” said Coffman, R-Aurora.

An attorney for two Latino groups that have joined in the redistricting lawsuit also questioned Coffman about his support for certain pieces of legislation, including English Only, the Dream Act and the Birthright Citizens Act.

The attorney asked if Coffman’s support those three issues would change if his district had more Hispanics. “No,” Coffman said.

Author and First Lady Helen Thorpe is updating her book 'Just Like Us.'

First Lady Helen Thorpe updated Coloradans at a women’s breakfast today about the status of four Mexican girls she first profiled in her book “Just Like Us.”

Thorpe, a journalist and a writer, said she is constantly asked what happened to the four girls, who then were in high school and discovering how their immigration status was impacting their lives.

Thorpe is updating her book to include the latest events in their lives.

“I’ve traveled all over Colorado and all over the country and people, really educated people, don’t understand,” she said. “They don’t understand that these students can’t walk into an office and fill out a form and change their status.”

WASHINGTON — Congressman Jared Polis spent Thanksgiving weekend and the start of the week circling Democrats and even trying to convince a few House Republicans to vote for the DREAM Act before the House vote this week.

The DREAM Act would give conditional citizenship to illegal immigrant kids who graduated from an American high school and either attended some college or agreed to serve in the military. It also would give them in-state tuition at public universities. Now, most states charge out-of-state tuition even if the students graduated from a local high school.

Polis believes there are enough votes, with four Republican co-sponsors, for the measure to pass the House.
But the Senate is a different story. Latino advocacy groups say they have only 55 sure votes — five too few for the bill to become law.

Both Colorado Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet support it.

“It’s the single most important bill for education,” Polis said today. “It changes lives and it doesn’t cost taxpayers a dime.”

He said he’s been making sure the Dems are on board and spent some time over the weekend leaning on some Republicans. Polis said he wasn’t sure he had any Republican votes beyond the original four co-sponsors, Republicans from Florida and California.

The proposed law, which opponents call amnesty for illegal immigrants, used to be less political than it is now. Some Republicans who faced tough election battles in 2010, like Arizona Sen. John McCain, have changed their minds and now oppose it.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.